The two-day “special meeting” on July 28 and 29 “ended on a high note with both sides expressing a common desire to restore trust and confidence in addressing major issues in order to pave way for the early resumption of the stalled peace negotiations.”
The two panels agreed on four points, including how to deal with the controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) which was initialed by both parties on July 27, 2008 and was supposed to have been formally signed on August 5, 2008 were it not for a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court on August 4.
By a vote of 8-7, the Supreme Court on October 14, 2008 ruled the MOA-AD “unconstitutional” but noted that “surely, the present MOA-AD can be renegotiated or another one will be drawn up to carry out the Ancestral Domain aspect of the Tripoli Agreement of 2001, in another or in any form, which could contain similar or significantly drastic provisions.”
The MOA-AD was the third and last agreement out of the three-agenda items in the talks -- security, relief and rehabilitation, and ancestral domain – prior to the negotiation on the political settlement.
The panels today agreed on the following:
--- Mutual effort to sustain both the Government’s Suspension of Military Offensives (SOMO) and the MILF’s Suspension of Military Actions (SOMA);
- --- Acknowledgment of MOA-AD as an unsigned and yet initialed document, and commitment by both parties to reframe the consensus points with the end in view of moving towards the comprehensive compact to bring about a negotiated political settlement;
- ---- Work for a framework agreement on the establishment of a mechanism on the protection of non-combatants in armed conflict;
--- Work for a framework agreement on the establishment of International Contact Group (ICG) of groups of states and non-state organizations to accompany and mobilize international support for the peace process.
The Joint Statement, a copy of which was furnished MindaNews by Assistant Secretary Camilo "Bong" Montesa, government spokesperson for Talks with the MILF, also noted that government peace panel chair Rafael Seguis “took serious note” of the concern of the MILF on the implication of the exclusion from the SOMO of some MILF commanders tagged as ‘rogues’ by the Government. The MILF considers the three alleged “rogues” as “legitimate MILF” members.
Montesa said the acknowledgement of the MOA-AD as an unsigned and yet initialed documenta “means what it says.”
“It is a document that is unsigned yet initialed and that Parties will move on to negotiating the comprehensive compact. It describes a fact and a resolve by the Parties to move forward," gw aUS,
The ICG is a new set-up being introduced. It is not clear if this includes or is separate from the the International Monitoring Team (IMT) which Malaysia led until the mandate expired in November last year and the international guarantors the MILF was earlier demanding, following the breakdown of the talks after the botched signing of the MOA-AD.
But Seguis told MindaNews the ICG is “just like Friends of the Peace Process in Mindanao.”
The Joint Statement was signed by Seguis and MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal, in the presence of Malaysian talks facilitator, Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak.
Iqbal could not be reached for comment.
The peace panel members boarded the same flight to Malaysia on Monday, just as President Arroyo was delivering her State of the Nation Address.
Ms Arroyo in her SONA said “there is now a good prospect for peace talks with both the Communist Party of the Philippines and the MILF, with whom we are now on ceasefire.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)
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